Aug 24, 2009

Boycott: The People's Last Weapon

Looking around in Twitter, since I haven't walked into these news in the papers I receive (should I wonder why?), I read today, for the first time about the Whole Foods Market issue. Must say I'm outraged. The issues with them are many, and you can read of them here: Whole Food Market: What's Wrong With Whole Food Markets? At least some of them.

The store advertises itself pretty much as all th best things put together. Healthy food, humane treatment of farm animals, ecological conscience, ... but theie CEO, John Mackey is anti-union. Well, he's libertarian, which pretty much means, he believes the market not only knows better, but whatever direction the market takes is the best, and no one should interfere. He openly claims that unions promote problems in the company. Well, many people today have no idea what's like to have a union, a REAL union, but those who do, or those who still got the chance to get their hands on those old Economics books where the Union part hasn't been edited (out), would know that the Union is that one way workers have to make sure to get good working condtions. Unions don't come to antagonize with the management unless the management is set on exploiting and abusing workers.

So, aside from fishes filled up with mercury, and monopolistic practices, and lying about the "small farmers" they support, and the "organic" nature of their products, and all the lies they pile un in the holy name of money, there's this thing they don't even try to cover, though they keep lying about the morale and the working conditions they impose on their workers. So, the base line is that they treat farm animals humanly, but HUMANS don't deserve the same treat?

Workers can't do a thing, but buyers can. Sometimes we feel that it has no point in voting because elections are arranged, no matter how many Jimmy Carters line up and say that it has been all gone down in the frame of fair game, and yet you know and you can't believe how people do nothing, how far up corruption runs, and how useless out little vote in democracy weights. Sometimes we feel we can't do nothing because no matter how many protests we organize, how many letters we sell, how hard we scream, how high we hold our banners, nothing changes, but there's one thing we can still use to make a difference, and that's to refuse to give our money to those we do not agree with.

We can do something to avoid the "next energetic crisis" hitting us by replacing our ful dependant transportation, by reducing our use of electrical power. Walk more, bike, use the public transportation to go to the office, do more things during the day, take advantage of natural light, unplug all those electrical things you don't really use all the time. Unplug the TV, the DVD, the chargers... you don't really need them all day, now do you? Unplug the computer, or replace it with an energy efficient laptop. Replace lightbulbs, organize every once in a while a nice "candle light night". You can save water, you can reduce your consumption of plastics, you can help recycling by also chosing recycled products. You can save your things, reuse then, thinking before you buy a new one if you actually need a new one or whether you can still give use to the old one.

You can also decide you won't condone the abuse to animals, our planet and other people. Listen. Learn. Think. Refuse giving money to those who will stick it in their own pockets instead of sharing them by fairly paying their workers. You can help promote human values, by learning the philosophy of the companies you buy from. Don't worry, this is a capitalist market, and like all those neoliberals say, this "perfect market", left to its own devices, will always provide plenty of proper selection. Our nickels and dimes are our power because no matter how little they look compared with their millions and billions and trillions, they actually need our pennies and nickels and dimes to keep their millions from smoking away.

No comments:

Me, Me, Me. It's good to be me

Economist, student, reader, witch, monster... it depends of the eye of the beholder :-) I love everything that has to do with economics, politics, and planners, studying, organization and sometimes even a good ranting about something.